1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a maintenance device for a print head, and in particular to a maintenance device provided with a collection device having a special configuration.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
A conventional maintenance device for a print head of an office machine (e.g. printer) comprises a wiper wiping ink remaining on the print head, a cap covering the print head to prevent dried ink from jamming the printing nozzle, a scraper scraping remaining ink from the wiper, a collection device collecting ink sprayed from the print head and an absorber absorbing the ink from the collection device.
A conventional collection device for ink as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,563,639 is placed at the bottom of a maintenance device as a reservoir collecting the sprayed ink. However, in such structure, excess ink easily sprays onto the print media.
Another conventional collection device as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,142 discloses two collecting containers to collect sprayed ink, referred to as primary and secondary spittoons. An opening and a rib are defined at ⅔ the height of the primary spittoon. The ink collected in the primary spittoon may overflow into the secondary spittoon. However, in such structure, the ink can easily escape containment and sully the printer.
The absorber is a sponge disposed on the bottom of the printer. Sprayed ink is routed to the absorber by a pump or impelled thereto via the opening. When diffusion rate is less than ink accumulation rate on the sponge, a saturation area on the sponge can allow the ink to easily escape.